Gun is the means, not the cause

I am a father and grandfather. I am appalled at the evil that has permeated our society. Senseless violence that takes any life, adults or children, cannot be tolerated.

This being said, I totally disagree with your Tuesday editorial, “No more excuses on gun control.”

First, we citizens do not own assault weapons. They are look-alike rifles. Second, the shooters who commit these crimes stop when the police arrive. They know they are about to be stopped, so they take their own life. A man with a baseball bat or a knife, the results would have been the same.

The weapon is the means, not the cause.

The cause is covered by the First Amendment – violent music, gratuitous violence in movies and video games where murder is fun. These do not effect everyone, but they do effect those on the fringe. Liberals always attack the Second Amendment, but never the First Amendment.

This needs to change. You first take care of the cause, and the means will no longer matter.

Will banning videos and violent movies end the violence? No, but it will go a long way.

There are some questions that need to be answered: How do defenseless people defend themselves? Violent people will always have some type of weapon, whether a gun, bat or ax. How would citizens, armed with single shots or bolt actions, protect their rights against a corrupt government armed with fully automatic rifles?

Our founding fathers were exceptional people. They knew about oppressive governments. They were visionaries. That’s the purpose of the Second Amendment, to protect the people.